


Silent victory

by sarcasmismyweapon



Series: Learning Curve [22]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Adorable, Anbu Hatake Kakashi, Chunin Umino Iruka, Cute, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Gen, Gift Work, Life lessons fic, LifeLessonsfic, Mischief
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-23 23:01:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20016217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcasmismyweapon/pseuds/sarcasmismyweapon
Summary: Life Lessons fic.Iruka is getting off late from work and he should have known that this would spark a certain Anbu into harassing him. Two can play that game, the Chunin takes great pleasure in making the Anbu think twice before intruding on his work.





	Silent victory

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MurphysAngel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MurphysAngel/gifts).



> We've made it to two years on the main story, TWO YEARS! The official anniversary is the 30th but I'll be at a client's house with spotty wifi so I figured it was best to post things now. Many thanks to those who participated in the 2nd-anniversary quiz and I hope you all enjoy the fics for this years anniversary.

Iruka froze, he knew something or rather someone was near him. Seeing as he’d been alone until only moment ago, the Chunin was on guard. Continuing to pack his bag as if nothing was wrong, Iruka deftly pulled the shuriken between the pages of his book. Prepared to use the weapon in a seconds notice, Iruka slumped defeated when he heard the perpetrator.

“Thought you got off a 5?”

Sighing Iruka shoved the shuriken into the book to avoid the embarrassment of acknowledging that he nearly threw a shuriken at the Anbu all while having used it as a bookmark. That was something that he wouldn’t soon hear the end of if word got out, twisting sharply the Chunin glared.

“Sometimes work gets away from you.”

Wolf snorted. “Cute. Try again...Maybe this time lead with a lie that’s not so obviously skewed towards someone else being a dumbass.”

Iruka knew he shouldn’t smile at that, shouldn’t find amusement in how the Anbu immediately called his bluff and simultaneously called an unknown person a dumbass. That didn’t mean he could stop himself from doing it, coughing in an attempt to hide the fact that the Anbu had made him smile Iruka muttered. “I was simply helping a friend.”

“This friend have a name?”

Iruka gave a prim nod. “Of course-”

“One I’d recognize?” The Anbu was quick to interject.

Iruka snapped his mouth shut, glaring when the Anbu nodded in silent victory. “Fine.” The Chunin bit out. “I felt sorry for the dumbass and stayed back to help him.”

“And he would be...?”

Iruka rolled his eyes. “He didn’t ditch me, I was literally packing up when you stalked in. He left not two minutes ago.”

“Lie.”

Iruka flustered sputtered out. “W-What? What do you mean lie?”

Wolf tilted his head and with a sigh replied. “I mean its a lie because it’s a lie.” The Anbu shrugged as if that was obvious before adding. “And the fact that I’ve been here for ten minutes, so either your horrible with time which I know you’re not or the dumbass ditched you.”

Iruka glared, the Anbu nodded in silent victory. Twisting sharply back around, Iruka continued to pack up his things. He ignored the sounds of the Anbu stalking around the room, disturbing things that he shouldn’t be touching in the first place. Iruka had long since given up on that particular argument and instead chose to call out. “If you break that model again Mei-sama is going to have your balls.” Iruka smiled to himself when he heard a clatter followed by what he was sure was a rather creative curse that was shamefully muffled under the man’s mask.

“Don’t do that.” The Anbu hissed as he came back into Iruka’s range of vision, Iruka hummed as he packed up some things. Looking up at last with a not so innocent smile.

“Do what?”

“You know what.” Wolf seethed. “You did that on purpose.”

“What? Like how you’ve been staking out this place for the last ten minutes?”

Silence. Iruka gave a nod, a quaint smile on his face in victory.

“Let’s go.” The Anbu grumbled.

Chuckling at Wolf’s irritation, Iruka shoved the rest of his things into his bag before nodding. Coming around the table to wrap an arm around the man, leaning into him enough to whisper. “He really is a dumbass by the way.”

The snort he got in reply had the Chunin smiling, the pair disappeared a moment later only to reappear in Iruka’s apartment. The Chunin pulled away to put his things aside, making his way into the kitchen all without bothering to look back to see what his guest was doing. Iruka knew by now what Wolf’s routine was when they got back to his place, so he ignored the Anbu in favor of getting things started. There was no reason to scope out his own apartment for threats when you had an Anbu to do it for you. He was already boiling water by the time the man came into the kitchen.

“You moved something.”

Iruka smirked, and so it began. “Did I?”

Wolf hummed as he came to sit at the chair opposite of the counter Iruka was leaning on. 

“What makes you say that?” The Chunin questioned innocently, neither of them was convinced but that was part of the fun.

Wolf sighed. “Why do you do this to me?”

Iruka laughed, unable to keep his amusement silent anymore. “Becuase it’s hilarious even if it is a little mean.” He replied with a grin.

“It’s not a little mean, it’s cruel.” The Anbu complained. “Now I have to spend the next half an hour figuring out what it is you moved and where it actually goes.”

Iruka shrugged as he began to pour two cups of tea. “It’s not my fault you can’t let things like that go.”

“Actually...It is because....You. Keep. Doing. It!”

Iruka snickered as he set aside the teapot, sliding over a cup to the Anbu all while smiling. “Well, best get started then. Let me know when you think you have it figured out, I’m going to do some paperwork.”

Kakashi huffed as the Chunin walked away from him, easily transitioning into the living room to continue whatever work was leftover from the dumbass Iruka had felt the compassion to save. Silently the Anbu made his way through to the room, at first, watching Iruka but that soon lost his interest when it appeared that Iruka was indeed only doing paperwork. Kakashi couldn’t put it past the Chunin to watch him, he found it far too amusing to torture him this way. What had a one time been an innocent game was now just plain mean and what was worse the brat found his suffering amusing. 

Shaking his head, Kakashi began searching the living room for whatever item his subconscious was telling him was out of place. Stupid Anbu instincts. Just because something was moved didn’t automatically mean that a trap was in motion or anything otherwise nefarious, but after spending so long in the field your brain connects the dots between things like moved objects and patterns. So...Here he was, searching Iruka’s whole apartment for a single item the Chunin had cleverly hidden for his own amusement.

“You’ve been glaring at that wall for a while now...I can assure you, I haven’t reloacted any of those.”

Kakashi twisted to glare. “Do your paperwork.”

Iruka smiled back at him, faithfully returning his attention to the paperwork even as he called back. “You’re cold by the way.”

“Seriously? Marco Polo?”

“Fine.” Iruka shrugged. “Have at it.” The teen waved a hand, issuing the challenge to the Anbu all without the benefits of his help.

Kakashi grit his teeth, okay that was rather stupid of him. Sighing, he twisted about, away from the wall and began to search for the actual item that was out of place. Books were all accounted for, there was even a new one that looked as if Iruka had nearly broken the spine on already. He was a rather voracious reader, though their tastes couldn’t have been further apart. 

Moving on, Kakashi saw the photographs that lined the mantel, all where they should be. Iruka’s Genin team, photos of him with his friends, with the entire makeshift family (Anbu included). A rare photograph given the people involved, but it was a cherished memory for all those in it, moving past the photographs Kakashi disregarded the other items still hung on the mantel. The sights of the old scrolls just made him want to burn them all over again and Iruka had already told him that he wasn’t allowed to do that. Best to move on before he was lectured again, not that it was his fault that he hated the damn things. Kakashi wasn’t the only one, not that Iruka seemed to care. 

The Anbu made his way around the room, subtly moving items to see if there was anything missing around them. He came up empty and by the time he’d circled the entire living room twice he was sure that the missing item wasn’t in the living room. Nodding, he moved back into the kitchen. Iruka hardly ever tampered with things in there, but it was always a good idea to check. The few times he had altered things in the kitchen were the times where Kakashi spent hours searching for something that was in plain sight just inside the room. Iruka always found that the most amusing, evil little shit.

The kitchen was the same as it ever was, the only things out of place were the teapot which had been set aside to cool and his teacup that he’d left behind in favor of his search. Huffing, he walked over and lifted his mask enough to take a shallow sip of the beverage. Swallowing he hummed, it was good tea but then again Iruka was good at making tea. Setting his mask back in place and the cup back on the counter, the Anbu resumed his search. 

Kakashi searched the few nicknacks that Iruka kept in the kitchen, the small bulletin board was riddled with small items that Kakashi knew would one day deteriorate to the point of not being salvageable. For now, however, they remained pinned to the well-worn surface. His father’s badge from being on the security team for the marketplace was still on show, a few photos were pinned beside it. Namely one of a very haggard looking Mizuki and Izumo who wore similar badges, it brought a smirk to his face even now. Kakashi pushed himself to leave the funny photos that followed after it, looking around one final time before exiting the room.

Iruka was still curled up on the couch, balancing some paperwork and his teacup on his lap. Both precariously placed, but somehow the Chunin never got a drop of tea on his paperwork, Kakashi was still stumped on how he managed that. He always made a mess of things or at least that was what every single person at the mission desk said, he liked to think they were just overly critical. 

“You’re staring again.”

Smirking beneath his mask, the Anbu retaliated. “I like the view.”

Iruka snorted. “You still haven’t found it.”

Huffing at the teens taunt, Kakashi sulked past the teen and made his way into the hallway. Making a show of opening each and every cabinet with more force than necessary. Iruka didn’t give in to the bait, simply hummed before calling out.

“You didn’t latch the third one.”

Kakahi grit his teeth as he relatched it. “Thank you.” Huffing, the Anbu moved forward. Stepping into the bathroom, he gave it a once over before deciding no. Iruka had never changed anything in the bathroom and Kakashi didn’t think the Chunin ever would. It would just be annoying if anything, the space was too condensed for him to be able to get away with anything. 

Leaving the room, he made his way into the man’s bedroom. This was the likely culprit of his search, Iruka’s favored places to alter were the living room and bedroom. Not only because they were larger rooms with more places to hide things, but more things that could possibly be moved. Kakashi had to hand it to him, Iruka was smart that way. 

At first glance, everything seemed normal and that’s when Kakashi knew he was in the right room. There was always a chance, although slim that he might have missed something in the living room. After so long, he’d gotten quite thorough in his searches for the mystery item of the day or week. Sometimes Kakashi had to put up with this multiple times a week as penance for disturbing the man’s work, how Iruka always knew when to disturb something in his own home still eluded the Anbu. 

Shaking his head Kakashi got back to it, searching the nearby desk that was more a shelf than an actual working surface now. Iruka liked to hole himself up on the couch or his bed rather than sit slumped over the thing. Kakashi couldn’t blame him there, still, the surface had a knack for swallowing items. Carefully, Kakashi used a single gloved finger to shift some things around. Nothing appeared to have changed since the last time he was forced to go about this search. Nodding Kakashi moved off, finding the photos on the boy's dresser to be all in place. The drawers themselves were all closed and he need not check their contents, that was one thing that Iruka wouldn’t be able to handle. Kakashi still found it amusing to know that the teen was so abjectly horrified at the notion of someone going through his underwear drawer. It was cute.

There were still a few posters from the boy's youth, though they were all but faded. Still, all in place as well, not surprising since Kakashi was pretty sure they’d disintegrate if the teen tried to move them now. A quick glance to the teen's bed showed that it was out of order like usual, no matter how early the teen got up he always forgot to make his bed. Kakashi knew he wasn’t one to judge but hell if it wasn’t funny to pester the kid about it. 

The blankets were rumpled, the pillow half falling off the edge of the bed itself and what looked like scrap pieces of paper were intermixed with the sheets. Sighing, Kakashi wondered just how late the teen had stayed up for that to become the norm. Shaking his head, the Anbu moved over to the nightstand where a lamp and a few useful items lay. A small notepad, a pen, a half-eaten ration bar. Kakashi grimaced at the sight of that, Iruka must have been ravenous to have eaten that. Idly he made a mental note to tell Himiko about it, she’d give the kid hell for it and give him something real to eat. It was a win for Iruka seeing as the kid would get free food...Well, after the lecture was through of course. Smirking at his ulterior motives, the Anbu turned away. All was in place there, other than the ration bar but Kakashi was 99.9% positive that Iruka hadn’t intended to leave the proof of himself not taking care of himself out in the open where he could find it. Wasn’t that going to be funny to point out? The kids own game made him out himself, Kakashi snickered.

“Whatever you’re doing, stop.”

Kakashi twisted to scowl at the open doorway. “I’m allowed to have fun while you torture me.” He threw back.

“Not in my house you’re not.”

Smirking Kakashi baited the teen. “Does that mean we can go to my place?”

Silence. Nodding, Kakashi returned to his search. If there was one thing he knew how to do it was to make Iruka think twice about saying something to him. Anything could be a weapon, it was all just a matter of perspective.

*********

Iruka’s cheeks went red when Wolf called out the taunt, he should have figured that he’d get something like that in reply. Still, it always flustered him, made him feel like a kid again and not the seasoned Chunin that he was. Huffing, Iruka took a few deep breaths to try and contain the flush on his cheeks. Wolf would give him hell if he came back to find him all flustered, best to cool things down a bit. The Chunin shook his head before whipping back the rest of his tea, swallowing he discarded the now empty cup and did his best to focus on the work he’d brought home with him. 

No matter what Wolf said, he took on the extra work because he liked helping people. Even dumbass people. Smirking to himself, the Chunin sorted through some of the reports, idly filtering out the noises coming from his bedroom. Iruka knew that Wolf wouldn’t get into anything he wasn’t meant to, he was simply trying to make his own instincts settled down by ‘fixing’ the problem. Iruka wondered if the Anbu would have forgone the little ‘game’ back then if he’d known how it would turn out for him. Iruka sighed when he heard something fall in his bedroom which was swiftly followed by.

“It’s fine!”

Huffing the Chunin reminded the Anbu. “That’s lost its reassurance after the ink incident.”

“You have no faith in me.” Wolf complained from down the hallway.

Iruka snorted. “I have every faith in you and your destructive tendencies, I’d just prefer they didn’t take place in my apartment.”

The laugh that he got in return was far closer than he’d anticipated, looking up from his paperwork found that the Anbu had just entered the living room. Wolf came around and slumped onto the other end of the couch.

Iruka quirked up an eyebrow, this was interesting. Wolf couldn’t settle himself until he’d found and put back whatever Iruka had ‘misplaced’. However, the Anbu had a habit of coming back to him and pointing out the ‘flaw’ in not only which item he chose to relocate but where he chose to place it. This time, however, the man was relaxing on the couch opposite him. Something was wrong.

Slightly nervous with how easy going Wolf was, Iruka questioned. “Well?”

“Hmm?” The Anbu looked back at him from where he’d been staring at the mantel once more. Plotting against the items there.

“Don’t even think about it.” Iruka growled, he wasn’t fooled by the man’s innocent act. “And why are you sitting in here all relaxed? Did you figure it out?”

“The item? Yeah...Good one by the way.”

Iruka chuckled. “Like that did you?”

Wolf snorted. “No, I hated it like I have all the ones prior. This is cruel and unusual punishment-”

“Oh please, I heard you betting Hawk that you could do better than he could and that you two were going to ask Himiko to be referee in her own house.”

The Anbu was silent a moment. “Right...Well, there’s that and then there’s the fact that I found your little item and put it back where it was supposed to be.”

Iruka gave a smile. “Alright then.”

“And I also might have misplaced something...Important.” The Anbu replied coolly while staring back at the Chunin.

“What?” Iruka stated flatly.

“Hmm? Oh, yes, clumsy me...I misplaced something in all my ventures in the apartment, I’m sure you can find it though. You’re so good with knowing where things go and don’t go.” The Anbu replied civilly.

“Wolf.” The teen growled. “What did you do? What item did you take and where did you put it?”

“That is the question isn’t it?” Kakashi smiled beneath his mask, turn about was fair play. “I will tell you, however, one thing.” He held up a finger.

Iruka glared at the finger and then back to the Anbu who was obviously smiling at him. “You’re cold.”

“I”m going to kill you.”

Kakashi remained silent as the Chunin proceeded to tear his own apartment apart looking for something ‘important’ that the Anbu might have misplaced. Kakashi kicked back, setting his feet on the coffee table and watched. A word never leaving his lips, all the while his hand played with the Chunin’s office keys. Kakashi was pretty sure it was going to take Iruka a hell of a lot longer to find the missing keys than it had Kakashi to find the post-it note that was always on the side of the teen's nightstand. It’s message all the more amusing now than when he’d first written it to the kid. ‘I’m a ninja, I take my victories silently when I have to.’ 


End file.
